In The Tunnels of NYC
by madlibs44
Summary: After retrieving the Iacon relic from the tunnels of NYC, Arcee, Bumblebee, Jack, and Miko have an unexpected encounter with some unusual creatures.
1. Chapter 1

"Let's hope the others are having similar results," Arcee said as they walked away from Vogul. She and Bumblebee both transformed, allowing Jack and Miko to climb in/on before driving further into the tunnels under New York City. "Now we just need to figure out how to get out of here."

Jack glanced down at the motorcycle beneath him, "Can't we stay for a while? You know… tour the city a bit?"

"No can do, Jack," Arcee replied as they zoomed down the tunnels, heading hopefully away from the more active tracks. "We need to get back so that we can help Optimus and the others."

Jack sighed but understood the necessity of returning to base. He listened idly as Arcee contacted base and tried to explain to Fowler how to operate the groundbridge. He glanced at the dark, adjacent tunnels as they passed and wondered if any of the urban legends that Vogul had spoken of were true. The group came to a stop at a tunnel junction and waited as a subway train passed. Jack glanced behind as he heard the sounds of voices growing louder.

His eyes widened as he saw what looked like four large turtles step out from a small side tunnel behind them, walking on two legs. The four beings froze upon spotting the motorcycle and car, obviously not expecting anyone else to be in the tunnels. Jack and the turtles stared at each other for several moments, the boy's mouth hanging open. The silence was broken as Miko popped her head out of the window.

"Woah!" she exclaimed, pushing Bee's passenger side door open and stepping out of his vehicle form. "Vogul was right!"

Bee and Arcee immediately transformed and drew their blasters, Jack being knocked to the ground in the process. As soon as the bots even began their transformations, the four turtles had already drawn their own weapons, though much more primitive ones than those of the Autobots. Jack sprinted forward towards where Miko was standing between the two bots and the four turtles, holding up his hands between the two groups.

"Arcee, Bee, wait!" he shouted. Miko stood calmly beside him, though she was transfixed by the strange beings.

"No, get behind us now!"

Jack heard the clang of metal and turned to see one turtle, wearing a blue bandana, laying his two swords on the ground. The turtle then stood up and bowed to the humans and bots. His companions stared at him as if he were crazy.

"Leo, what're you doing?" a red-banded turtle growled, his eyes not moving from the large robots before him.

"Trying to avoid any unnecessary bloodshed," the blue-banded one replied before stepping forward. Arcee's and Bumblebee's blasters remained trained on him as he approached. "Please, we mean no harm. You merely surprised us. We don't usually encounter… people down here."

Arcee eyed the strange being suspiciously before stowing her blasters, her servos replacing them. Bumblebee beeped at her and she gave him a stern look, to which he responded by also putting away his weapons. She let out a startled cry when Miko quickly closed the gap between herself and the turtles.

"Hey, are you guys aliens too?" she asked excitedly, bowing at the waist to the blue-banded turtle. "Or are you kappa like from the stories back in Japan?"

"We are neither," he smiled and shook her hand. "We are mutant turtles. My name is Leonardo and these are my brothers: Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael."

Jack stepped forward and offered his hand. "My name is Jack. This is Miko. These two are Arcee and Bumblebee."

"You guys are so cool!" Michelangelo nearly squealed, his orange bandana bouncing as he ran up to inspect Bumblebee. The yellow Bot beeped down at him in response. Michelangelo laughed and held up his three-fingered hand, his fingers spread to form a distinct V-shape. "Live long and prosper, dude!"

The red one, Raphael, promptly smacked his brother on the back of the head. "They aren't that kind of alien, shell-for-brains."

But Bumblebee laughed and held up his servo with his digits displayed in a similar fashion and beeped again. Arcee rolled her own optics and said, "Actually, he's been watching Star Trek with Raf lately. But onto more important matters…"

She paused and looked down at the purple-banded Donatello who was currently inspecting her body at an uncomfortably close distance. He was muttering about their fascinating technology as he went, scribbling notes as he went onto a primitive data pad.

"Anyway," she continued, trying to ignore the turtle, "we seem to be lost. We're trying to get back up to the surface."

"Yeah, and they obviously can't fit through any manholes," Jack pointed out.

Raphael narrowed his eyes at the teenager. "No kidding."

Leonardo shot a look at his hot-headed brother before turning back to Arcee, "We'd be happy to help. Did you need to get anywhere in particular?"

"Actually-," Arcee was cut off has the comlink opened.

"Arcee and Bumblebee, you need to get Miko back to base immediately," Ratchet's voice said urgently. The two Autobots glanced at each other then back at Miko. As if answering their silent question, Ratchet continued in a grave voice, "Bulkhead is in critical condition."

Miko's breath caught in her throat and she stared up at the two Autobots.

Michelangelo, without thinking, asked quite loudly, "Wait, there're more of you?"

"Who's there?" Ratchet asked defensively.

Arcee responded before the turtles could, "We were seen by some more… humans. But we can't find our way to the surface where we first jumped to."

"Agent Fowler!" Ratchet barked to someone on the other side of the comlink. "Take care of this; I need to tend to Bulkhead. Raf, work the groundbridge."

Silence followed for a few moments and Miko started to get anxious. Jack moved over to put a hand supportively on her shoulder. Without warning, a green vortex opened before the group, startling the turtles enough for them to redraw their weapons. Without another word, Miko sprinted into the groundbridge and disappeared from sight. A moment later, an older black man stepped through, looking extremely frazzled and exhausted.

"I'm here. Now who…" Agent Fowler stopped midsentence upon seeing the four turtles. After several moments of uneasy silence, he moaned and massaged his temples. "You know what? I don't have the patience or the time to deal with this right now. Let's just say we'll _forget_ about you and you _forget_ about us. Deal?"

Arcee, Bumblebee, and Jack looked incredulously at the man while the turtles seemed to consider it. Finally, Leonardo, the obvious leader of the four, turned and bowed to the government agent, his brothers following suit.

"We gladly accept your offer," Leonardo smiled. He looked relieved. Agent Fowler turned to look back at the two Autobots and teenage boy, who all nodded back at him in confirmation. Returning his attention back to the turtles, Fowler held out his hand to the blue-banded turtle.

"Well it was nice… Where in Uncle Sam's beard did they go?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello readers! When I saw the season finale of Transformers Prime, all I could do was keep screaming "Why? Why did they do that?" at my boyfriend, who got annoyed with it really fast. So in response to "Darkest Hour" (SPOILERS), I'm going to try and write some more to this story because people apparently want more TMNTxTransformers. Who knew? Anyway, here's Chapter 2! Sincerely, madlibs44.**

* * *

**Chapter 2:**

Ratchet sat in the dingy alleyway, alone. He had been living in New York City for about a week now, if one could even call it living. His tires were nearly flat, his rims almost touching the asphalt beneath him. Some crude graffiti covered his passenger side, though he had yet to bother to see what it depicted. He could go get it washed off and his tires refilled. It wouldn't be hard to sneak into a car wash or a gas station after hours. But he simply didn't have the will to care anymore.

Cybertron was lost.

No word from Optimus. No word from Arcee or Bumblebee or any of the other Autobots. He hadn't even been contacted by the human children or Agent Fowler.

Ratchet's expression would have darkened, if he had been in bipedal mode, at the thought of the children. How did their lives warrant the loss of an entire planet? His _home_? Over the week he had spent in that infernal alley, his anger had gradually shifted from Optimus to the children. Why did they let themselves be captured? The Autobot medic violently shoved the guilt trying to get his attention to the back of his mind. But it was no use. It had been his fault. If had had picked them up from school, none of this would have happened. But how could he have known? His frame shuddered as the anger and the guilt battled inside his processor.

The old mech didn't take notice of the screams at first. He had realized soon after bridging to the city that it was rife with crime. So he had hidden away in what was one of the better neighborhoods, at least according to the internet. But apparently even this borough wasn't completely free of crime. Something at the back of his processor told him that he shouldn't be ignoring the evil of the city but once again he shoved that thought away.

Another scream echoed through the street, louder and closer than before. A second later, a young woman flew around the corner and darted into the alleyway, tripping on her high heels and screaming for help. She bumped roughly into Ratchet's ambulance form before sprinting further into the dark alley. But Ratchet knew she would only find a dead end. He heard her cry of despair upon finding the brick wall that blocked her path.

Ratchet watched as a man appeared at the entrance to his little "home." He was clearly drunk and eyed the woman in a way that made Ratchet want to purge. The woman screamed again as the man pulled out a knife and Ratchet wondered why no other humans were responding to her cries. He couldn't very well reveal himself without possibly bringing the entire Decepticon army down upon the Big Apple. But somewhere in his angry processor, he knew that Optimus would help the woman no matter what.

Ratchet had finally resolved to aid the human woman when four dark shapes dropped into the alley from the rooftops. The man and the woman didn't seem to notice but Ratchet's sensors easily picked up on the four new heat signatures residing in the alleyway. The mech remained still as one of the figures dropped behind the man and, with a firm hit to the cranium, knocked him unconscious. The woman saw her pursuer drop but could not see her savior (or saviors) through the shadows. She clutched at her purse and squinted through the darkness.

"T-thank you!" she stammered, still shaking with fright.

"Are you alright?" a green man said cheerfully, appearing next to her suddenly.

Ratchet's frame jolted with surprise upon seeing the clearly _non_human creature. The woman screamed and ran past him, out into the street. Oddly, the creature that had downed the man stepped out of her way.

"Wait! We won't hurt you!" the first creature shouted after her. He wore an orange headband. He stepped forward as if to follow her.

_Bang_.

The strange creature fell backwards onto the pavement with a moan, holding his head. Ratchet's passenger side door closed with a satisfied click. There was silence in the alleyway, save for the creature's moaning. Then three others appeared, wearing blue, red, and purple bandanas. Each had strange, primitive weapons. The one with the red garb was the first to respond, stepping up to the ambulance with a growl and brandishing two sharp metal objects.

"I dare you to open your door again, you bastard," he ground out, dropping into an almost animalistic fighting stance.

"Raphael, stand down," the blue-banded one commanded, though he himself didn't lower his swords. Ratchet's audio sensors piqued at the sound of 'Raphael'. "They may not be a foe… Donny, what are you doing?"

The purple-banded creature, or as Ratchet could best describe it, turtle, was staring closely at his Autobot symbol. The medic nearly panicked at the thought of these strange creatures somehow informing the Decepticons of his presence. But his processor calmed with the reasoning that Megatron would never ally with organics.

"Are you friends with Arcee and Bumblebee?"

The question took the medic completely off guard. He found himself struggling to understand, not the question itself, but how the creature had known those names. A sensor told him that he was low on energon but he chose to ignore it. Several moments of silence pervaded the alley as the four turtles waited both patiently and impatiently for an answer. As something he would later deem a rather stupid decision, the medic chose to rev his engine and peel out of the alleyway.

Or rather, that's what he would have done if his engine hadn't sputtered and his front driver-side tire hadn't burst. In shock, he simply sat there on the pavement, off-kilter and engine smoking. He knew that the smoking wasn't a good sign but he could figure no way out of his predicament. A three-fingered hand on his hood caused him to jerk forward slightly on his tires in surprise.

"Easy," Donny almost cooed, holding his hands up in a sign of peace. "We want to help."

From behind him, Ratchet heard a snort. "We? Whose 'we'?"

Donny shot a look back at the red-banded turtle. "I need you guys to go get the van, a spare tire, and some chains for towing."

There was a moment of hesitation before the turtle with the blue bandana, obviously the leader, gave a signal and all but the purple-banded turtle disappeared. In his under-fueled stupor, Ratchet vaguely wondered if they could teleport. He tried to protest as Donny pried open his hood. But the cool air relieving his overheated engine silenced him. The turtle seemed to be delicately examining his insides and gave a low whistle, though Ratchet couldn't tell if he was impressed, surprised, or what.

"What's your name?"

Ratchet hesitated a moment. But as he felt is systems begin to slide into stasis lock, he acquiesced and simply responded, "Ratchet."

Within moments, the mech went into full stasis lock.

* * *

Ratchet's systems onlined slowly, like a human waking from a deep slumber. He audios onlined before his optics and he heard someone murmuring from _beneath_ him. His groggy processor wouldn't allow him to jerk in surprise, much less be surprised. So when his optics finally began functioning, he merely observed his surroundings with a strange sense of calm.

The first thing he noticed was the strange architecture: a large open area with columns but no windows. A small pool sat in the middle of it all and various pieces of equipment and furniture were scattered around the large room. His attention drifted to himself. He was still in vehicle mode. No surprise there; transformation was something only he could initiate. But his vehicle mode sat up on large props, similar to ones found in human mechanic shops but more "homemade" looking. He noted that his energon levels were slowly rising: the reason why he had come out of stasis lock. After a quick search, the mech found the hose connected to his fuel tank. Following said hose, Ratchet finally jolted in surprise upon sight of a vat of a glowing blue-green substance.

Someone cursed from beneath him and something metallic clattered to the ground.

A moment later, Donny rolled out from under him. Pink coolant fluid covered his entire upper body and his eyes were squeezed shut as he searched for a towel. A laugh came from the other side of the large room.

"I like you're new color, Donny!"

"Shut up!"

"Donny?" Ratchet asked softly, almost as if he was unsure if his vocalizer was online.

The turtle spun around to face him, hand and towel mid-wipe.

"You're awake!"

"Yes, I'm 'awake', as you call it," Ratchet was trying to put on his usual grumpy air but was failing miserably due to his interest in the creature's unexpected stash of energon. "You may remove the fuel line now. I'd rather not waste precious energon."

Donny nodded and removed the hose, being careful not to drip any of the precious fuel. "Is that what it's called? Mikey's been calling it Gas-o-Glow since I started working on it the other night. I have to say it has quite an interesting chemical makeup: I've never seen anything in the plasma state before. But after a few all-nighters, I managed to reverse engineer it. Is it working alright?"

The turtle gave a startled cry and scrambled backwards as Ratchet transformed. The large mech's changing form toppled over a table of equipment and pushed it into a nearby column. As Ratchet's last armor plate slid into place, he leaned over the poor purple-banded turtle.

"_You_ created synthetic energon?"

Donny nodded, now gripping his Bo staff in front of him defensively. Ratchet barely noticed the other three turtles materialize next to their brother, each brandishing their weapons, as he laughed at the irony of the situation. The red-banded turtle gritted his teeth and prepared to spring at the large mech.

"_Ya me_!" (Stop!)

All four turtles put away their weapons and turned to bow to the large rat stepping up to the group. Ratchet observed the old rat with interest, finally beginning to wonder how these strange creatures existed. The rat turned to look at the Autobot medic warily.

"My sons tell me that your comrades are peaceful," the rat narrowed his eyes at him and Ratchet felt strangely intimidated. "It would be… disappointing if you acted otherwise towards my sons."

Ratchet frowned at the threat but drew back from his 'sons' anyway. Any knowledge he possessed of organic reproduction told him that these turtles could not biologically be the rat's sons. Rather than kneel and pressure his old joints, Ratchet chose to retreat into the center of the room where the ceiling was higher so that he could stand up to his full height. Though he was nowhere near Optimus', or even Bulkhead's size, the medic easily dwarfed the second story that was now visible to him.

"Perhaps you should tell us more about yourself and your comrades," the rat suggested. He gestured to himself then the turtles. "My name is Hamato Splinter and these are my sons: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo."

Before Ratchet could respond, Michelangelo hopped up to him. "Dude, where's Bumblebee? I wanted to show him some sci-fi comic books he might like!"

Raphael smacked his brother upside the head. "Just 'cause you know he likes Star Trek doesn't me you know the 'bot!"

Ratchet frowned and answered despite Raphael's comment. "Actually, Bumblebee is quite partial to cartoons and comic books… But as to where he is, or how he is, I cannot be certain. We were forced to scatter when the Decepticons discovered our base and established their fortress, New Kaon, in-."

"In Jasper, Nevada?" Donatello finished. He had moved to a computer and pulled up several news feeds on the internet. With a click, he enlarged a picture of the imposing Decepticon fortress. Ratchet narrowed his optics at it. "It showed up a little over a week ago and has been all over the news since. The government's been trying to cover it up. ("I'm sure Bishop's all over that," Leo mused.) But the bloggers have been raving with theories."

Ratchet's servo crushed some of the stone of the upper level in anger and the organics jumped out of the way of the falling debris. The old medic shuttered his optics at the memory of the team's return from Cybertron and the swift Decepticon attack on their base. He thought of Optimus' decision to remain behind and he sagged against the old stone in despair. But then he thought of Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Smokescreen, and the children, scattered, alone, and possibly in danger. He onlined his optics; they burned with determination.

"I need to find my team."

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**Well there it is! I hope you like it: a lot of people have been asking for more even though I originally had this labelled as a one shot. Please review and until next time, Goodbye!**


End file.
